Franklin Institute, Boston announce tuition-free plan
Main building of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology
This is from The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com)
The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (BFIT) and the City of Boston unveiled a new program that will provide tuition-free community college to incoming and enrolled students next year. This program targets those studying to obtain their associate’s degree within three years.
The institute is a non-profit private college of engineering and industrial technologies established in 1908 with funds bequeathed in Benjamin Franklin's will.
Students enrolled in the new program must be Boston residents who graduated from a high school within the Boston Public Schools system, graduated as a METCO student, or earned their HiSET or GED from a Boston institution. While some area schools are already participating in this program, such as New England Council member Bunker Hill Community College, BFIT is the first private institution to participate. These programs are funded by the Neighborhood Jobs Trust, which collects linkage fees on big sale commercial development in Boston.
Anthony Benoit, president of BFIT, explained, “A lot of kids leave high school saying ‘oh I’ll get back to that’ and then it turns into year after year where don’t go back so this is specifically designed to say ‘go right to school, don’t wait just keep going to school.’”
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said, “The investments being made in our city by the people developing and building in our city and taking that money and putting it back into a program that offers education for people to move forward. . . That’s the best way to do it. . . We will continue to make college more accessible and affordable and that’s the way you make a better Boston.”
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Editor’s note; The school recently announced plans to sell its three-building campus at 41 Berkeley St. and build a campus elsewhere that would be around 30 percent bigger.
The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (BFIT) in Boston, Massachusetts, is a non-profit private college of engineering and industrial technologies established in 1908 with funds bequeathed in Benjamin Franklin's will.